The scenarios were provided by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and considered a varying range of factors including use of fossil and non-fossil fuels, human population growth, and environmental protection efforts.Īccording to this approach - the mountainous rainforest habitat isn’t expected to decline too much, the ecotone habitat of the second population is predicted to crash and burn rather quickly (under all scenarios by the year 2020). They then predicted how these habitats would change under climate change scenarios for years 2020, 2050, and 2080. They combined this population data with the environmental characteristics of their locations (including climate, slope, vegetation and tree cover) to determine how habitat drives the distribution of the Nigeria-Cameroon Chimpanzee. These fragile mosaics of ecosystems (or ‘ecotones’) are thought to be important in driving variation and diversification of species all over the world. ellioti - those in the mountainous rainforests of western Cameroon, and those in central Cameroon where three distinct habitats converge to form a mosaic of forest-woodland-savanna. In the most detail to date, they mapped the distribution of two distinct populations of P. The research team, one of the few groups studying Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees in the wild, mapped their precise geographic locations using reports of sightings, evidence of activity including nests and tools, and fecal and hair samples collected for genetic analyses.
Here’s an explanation of the methodology used in the study: We were surprised to see that the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees living in the savanna-woodland habitat of central Cameroon are under the most immediate threat of climate change, and may completely lose their habitat within our lifetime.” This is the first time that their distribution and habitat has been studied in such detail, and the data used to predict how their habitats might alter under climate change. Researcher Paul Sesink Clee, Graduate Research Fellow at Drexel University, stated: “The Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee is perhaps the least studied of all chimpanzee subspecies. What the new research has found, though, is that these issues will be greatly exacerbated by climate change in the coming years. The subspecies has seen its numbers fall in recent years due to deforestation, expanding agriculture and human settlements, and illegal poaching and bushmeat hunting. Without immediate attention, this important subspecies is likely to go extinct in the next ten to twenty years.One of the most endangered primates, and the most endangered chimpanzee subspecies in the world - the Nigeria-Cameroon Chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes ellioti) - is likely to see its numbers plummet over the coming years, according to new research published in BMC Evolutionary Biology.Īs it stands currently, there are around ~6,000 individuals of this subspecies left in the wild. In a recent meeting in Cameroon to address the lack of information on the conservation status of this species it was estimated that there may be only 5,000 remaining in the wild, with pressure from illegal hunting and logging decreasing both the population size and the available habitat.
Their range is an area that stretches from the Niger River in Nigeria to the Sanaga River in Cameroon.
The DNA of this subspecies is distinct from chimpanzee populations in other parts of Africa but not enough is known yet about these differences. In contrast to the Cross River Gorilla, which has been a focus of study and conservation action in this region by the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee is virtually unknown and studies of this species are rare. The Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee has been recognized as the most endangered subspecies of chimpanzee in all of Africa.
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